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when the lower lands are parched and burnt 

 up. In a cold season, the scanty harvest 

 never ripens, and a field of ill-grown oats of 

 a withered green, may not unfrequently be 

 seen standing in the middle of October and 

 sometimes later. 



About two miles from Shap, on a branch 

 of the river Lowther, stand the ruins of 

 Shap Abbey, a foundation of some con- 

 sequence in a former age, though far in- 

 ferior in point of size and splendor to 

 Kirkstal, Fountains, and Jerveaux, for the 

 prior was at different times summoned to 

 attend the parliaments held by Edward the 

 Second. The stream which flows past it 

 affords good fishing, and the angler may 

 follow its course downward until he arrives 

 at Askham, a pleasant village about a mile 

 west of Lowther Castle, the seat of the Earl 

 of Lonsdale. Should the tourist feel desirous 

 of viewing the interior of the castle, which is 

 a modern Gothic mansion, something in the 

 style of Eaton Hall though less florid, he 



